


You're Gold!

by TheGuard



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Endgame, Post-Game(s), Sadstuck, Self-Sacrifice, heroic death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 10:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6419569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGuard/pseuds/TheGuard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Homestuck's back with it's prelude upd8s and I saw a theory tied with a comment by Scratch, suggesting that John doesn't survive the Endgame. I hope he does make it. </p><p>Based off an Owl City song called "Gold".<br/>Also, this is Non-cannon to "I'll Find You Soon Enough", I have plans for Arctos there.<br/>It's late and I did this on one sitting, so it's prolly a bit crappy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Gold!

**Author's Note:**

> It won't take you long to get when you feel like you're soaring  
> So write it all and don't forget, you gotta tell us your story
> 
> Shout out to the friends back home  
> Shout out to the hearts you've known  
> You gave them nothing but the best, yeah  
> And you can tell them your story
> 
> "Gold" by Owl City

Their wounds went deep, in sombre colours on Godrobes and black cotton. There was hard earned agony, and victory in pain. Many were breathless, but there were faint smiles. All adversaries terminated, dead, boom, done. They were free to take their universe and leave, 200 boonies for everyone who passed though the arch. Troll and human and cherub alike. Terezi took a whiff of the roster. Vriska, Striders, Lalondes, ShoutyMcNubs, Aradia and Mr Appleberry Blast. But there was a slight tang to the air, a distant echo of footsteps.

"Where's John?" Rose asked. There was a pause as her fellow seer turned to look at her, then everyone started to echo in concern. John was not on the victory platform with everyone else. He had fought alongside Rose, Roxy, Jane and Kanaya against The Condesce and was said to have survived that encounter.  
The footsepts seeps to grow louder, if only slightly, accompanied by a low, vocal hum. That hum turned into singing, resembling that of a hymn.

"Vor shlekt ah chilt meh bloo far guh, Vee har ing en sha liet ell aey deed, Lee kell vell are vey til lit..."

The last note held for a while as a body, no, two bodies, slowly immerged from the void. The first, the one walking, appeared troll-like: coarse black hair swept to the right and covering one eye, horns shapes like dog ears set low on the sides of their head, grey skin and fangs protruding from the bottom jaw. Their robes showed that they were GodTier, but the style and colour combination were unlike any registered Classpect known to Sburb. The grey of the hood was too dark, and the green curves where too bright to be a Life player, and Heart's shade of Burgundy looked out of place, with a cape too curved to be a Knight, too concealing to be a Muse, and the Teal Rouge boots didn't seem to sit well with the Prince pantaloons that stopped above them. There appeared to be a rifle with a bayonet attached to the barrel, slung over one shoulder to reveal bare arms, with hands tipped with yellow claws. The body they carried told a different story and broke hearts. It was dressed all in blue, and had massive splashes of red, which had begun to darken at the back as it slowly dried. It was the silly windsock hood that set everyone off. 

"John, JOHN! Oh my god, NOO!" Jade screamed, the kids gathered around their lost friend-leader, trolls following suit. The Mayor watched them all and pulled Jane's father with him to the crowd. There was constant shouting and fussing before any answers were given. The anonymous troll appeared to shift John's lifeless form in his arms.  
"It was Heroic, I'm sorry. He'd bled out before I could get to him and revive him." he said sombrely, a slight whine like a dog in his tone.  
Sobs wracked everyone, this was not how it was meant to end. John was meant to be the one to open the door, but there was what felt like to be no way out now. A Heroic death. How stupid....and Egbertian. Just like him to go do that.

"I can do something about it. This is my last quest." The troll piped up. "The final quest for a Martyr is to sacrifice their Aspect for the benefit of their team. This is why I cannot leave until I do."  
"Yeah? And what the fuck do plan to do then?" Karkat roared under his tears. "You can't revive a player from a Heroic death, no matter how strong the Class for Life is!"  
"Stronger than a Page beyond the class limits?" he questioned. " I'm beyond the rules of this game now, consider me OP with a condition: a Hero over all 12 aspects CANNOT leave the game, unless they fulfil a unique quest."  
"Being?" Asked Calliope. She was aware of the Top classes of a co-op session being Muse and Lord. The existence of a Martyr class was incredibly unheard of, and the case of this troll, the first to ever occur. While the elusive Waste class had the powers of all classes for their Aspect, Martyrs had power over all Aspects to a degree of the players of their session, and when alone, their old class.  
"If you want your Heir of Breath back, I will have to sacrifice my Life, and pour my Heart into his empty body. And fortunately, you have both a Rouge and Prince for me to tear out my soul and place it into him." He looked to Dirk and the lurking Davepetasprite^2. "In this session, I have your Classes for the aspects.  
Dirk briefly pointed out that this would mean that the Martyr would basically be John and the whole revival shindig wouldn't work like that. The troll nodded and agreed that it might be a possibility.

As they were discussing the matter, slowly, the remaining John Ghosts that hadn't been slain in the fight against Lord English had begun to amass behind him. Distant pale faces, whited out eyes behind those thick frames. The troll sighed and moved the Alpha John's body to a more suitable position and began a speech, clearly rehearsed, to no-one in particular.

"Light of Day, Void of Night,  
Give me Time and Space.  
Ease the Mind and calm the Heart,  
That pushes Blood, tainted by Rage.  
I, Arctos Kekwan, Page of Life, Tealblood under Lupis the Wolf, descendent of The Berserker, honour my bargain with Hemera.  
By taking my Life and Breathing it into Johnathan Egbert, Heir of Breath.  
And wipe his Doom with new Hope."

There was the hot pink cackle of the Heart aspect pulling at Arctos' chest, and connecting at John's. Wind whipped at both of them, sparks of Hope popped off of the troll and onto the human's lifeless body in his arms, and teal blood slowly dribbled past his sharp fangs as he coughed. It started slow, but eventually, every aspect violently burned off of the Martyr, making him and the Heir illuminate. The Doomed Johns began to get pulled into to searing glow, which only seemed to get brighter with every lost soul. The trolls looked away from the intensity as the humans shielded their eyes. Arctos slowly began to step forward, each step he got weaker at the knees, teal eyes that almost stood out against the immense trails of Hope that flowed off him, trained on Jane and Jake. He passed them what they assumed was John's body. It felt warm, yet strangely small. The hands, along with the body that was attached to them, were eventually torn apart by conflicting and complimentary Aspects, as Arctos' Life, and therefore his final quest, ended.

There was no scream, yet he could have made the Time to do so. 

No one had words to describe what had happened, nor even a voice that wasn't choked up to do so. Everyone gathered around the raven haired Alpha kids, who both looked into Jane's arms. There was a bundle of Breath blue cloth, and a small, sleepy face peeking out. By Arctos giving up his Life and mixing it with Time, John had successfully been revived, albeit as a baby, swaddled in his huge trailing hood. It wasn't the finale they where expecting, but at least they could leave knowing nearly everyone was accounted for.

\-----Months later-----

The late summer's afternoon seemed to drag, as insects chirped and buzzed in the warm air. The surviving Trolls started to become more active as the sun slowly started to dip below the horizon. When they'd entered the new universe, Jane had taken it upon herself to play mum to John, with help from both Jake, her dad, and everyone else. Her dad more so than Jake. The Time boost that Arctos had given John, had sped up his growth and development immensely, before he reached his correct age before he died, and his memories were in the right order. John had been exploring with Jake on his island, where they had all banded together, before a sight caught his eye. Lusii continued to populate the place, the tamer ones were much more common, and the lack of seagoats was more noticeable. What caught his eye was what looked like a young Direwolf lusus with bright Teal eyes. The both stopped and stared at each other for a while. He could of sworn he heard a voice in the back of his head coming from the wolf, but wrote it off as background noise. He brought this up with the others at dinner and several other times after that, but it didn't matter who he told, John would always get the same response, a smile and a sigh.


End file.
